THE OATH IN ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREECE
HOW TO USE THIS DATABASE
The database can be searched on any one or more of the Searchable Criteria listed below; if
you do not wish to search on a particular criterion, make sure the menu box for that criterion
is blank or is set to a word that is preceded and followed by a hyphen (e.g. “-none-“).
The results of your search will appear as a list of entries satisfying the criteria you asked for –
first inscriptional texts, arranged in alphabetical order by corpus, then literary texts arranged
in alphabetical order by author. Clicking on any entry will bring up the full page for that entry.
If you just want a complete listing of the contents of the database, simply hit the Search
button without entering any criteria at all.
If you have been looking at an individual entry and want to go back to the list of entries
satisfying your criteria, it is best to use the Back button on your browser.
Searchable Criteria
Oath ID: this is the unique identifying number assigned to each passage in the database. If
you have looked at a particular passage and want to consult it again, entering its ID will take
you straight to it. Since this is a unique identifier, it should not be used in conjunction with
any other criterion.
Reference type: the database includes a number of passages (known in the parlance of the
project as “discussions”) which do not refer to specific oaths or acts of swearing but make
general statements, or raise general questions, about the practice of swearing, the nature of
oaths, how one should evaluate a sworn promise, etc. These passages have “discussion” in
the “Reference type” field; all others have “oath”. Since “discussion” entries do not refer to
specific events, most fields in them will have the value “n/a”, and the main substantive
discussion in such entries will be found in the Remarks field. They will be found, along with
other entries, in searches based on author, work, date, or linguistic markers.
Author: note that all works are assigned, for purposes of the database, to the author under
whose name they have been transmitted, even if they are now generally regarded as spurious
– unless they were certainly or probably written after 322 BC, in which case they have not
been included at all. Anonymous fragments (adespota) of literary genres are assigned to the
authors “Anonymus Comicus”, “Anonymus Iambicus”, etc.; “Anonymus Homericus” refers to
the Homeric Hymns, “Anonymus Oxyrhynchicus” to the author of the Hellenica Oxyrhynchica,
and “Anonymus Lesbius” to fragments whose author might be Sappho or might be Alcaeus. If
the author you are interested in cannot be found on the menu, it means that the database
contains no passages from that author’s corpus (either because the corpus contains no
references to oaths, or because the author has been regarded as of Hellenistic or later date).
If you wish to search a specific work of an author, we recommend that you use the Work
criterion immediately (see below).
Work: this menu includes both inscriptional texts (listed first, in alphabetical/numerical
order; each individual inscription is treated as a separate item) and literary texts (arranged
alphabetically by author).
Genre: the abbreviations of literary genres should be self-explanatory; the genres for
inscriptions are “private” and “public”.
Literary/epigraphic: use this criterion if you wish to confine your search to literary texts
only or to inscriptions only.
Year: enter a year number (BC) to see passages relating to acts of swearing datable to that
year, or to a period including that year. Thus entering “479” will bring up all oaths datable to
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479 or to a period beginning in or before 479 and ending in or after 479. The relevant date is
that of the act of swearing itself, not that of the writing of the text. Fictitious and mythical
oaths are not assigned a date, unless they are clearly being imagined as having been uttered
at a particular historical time (but see also next paragraph).
Century (BC): in addition to prehistoric and historic centuries (from the 12th to the 4th
inclusive), this menu includes the options “mythical” and “fictional”.
Taken in: the place (normally, if within the Greek world, the polis) where the act of swearing
occurred.
Swearer: this menu gives either the name(s) of the person(s) swearing an oath, or, where
an oath is taken, or is prescribed to be taken, by a whole category of persons, the description
of that category (e.g. “accusers”, “dikastai”, “generals”). The following attributes of swearers
can also be searched for:
Gender.
Age class: the categories are “child”, “adolescent”, “mature” and “old”. For males,
the dividing ages are 17-18, 30 (the typical age of marriage), and 60; for females,
“adolescent” refers to the usually brief period when a young woman is (or would be, if she
were of citizen status) marriageable but not yet married, and “mature” to the period from
marriage to menopause. A statement such as “mature/old” means that the person(s)
concerned must have belonged to one of these two classes, but it is unknown, or
indeterminate, which of the two it was; thus Athenian dikastai are entered as “mature/old”
since they could be any age from 30 upwards – except in Aristophanes’ Wasps, where all the
dikastai who appear are specifically described as old men. The statement “any adult age”
means that the person(s) concerned could have belonged to any age-class other than “child”.
Status: the categories are “power-holder” (including gods, kings, and important state
officials), “free”, “semi-servile” (including e.g. Laconian and Messenian helots, and war
captives not yet definitively reduced to slavery) and “chattel slave”.
Citizenship: the state (in the Greek world, normally the polis) of which the swearer
was a citizen or subject.
Swearee: the person, if any, to whom an oath was addressed or who exacted it from the
swearer. For swearees, as for swearers, their gender, age class, status and citizenship
can also be searched for. Where an oath was mutual (two individuals or groups making sworn
promises to each other), the list of swearees will be identical with the list of swearers.
Linguistic marker: this normally refers to the word or words (or letter-string) in the text
that mark the utterance as an oath – for example the particles nē “yes, by …” and ma “no, by
…” or letter-strings that identify a word as a form of omnumi “I swear” or of horkos “oath”.
Linguistic markers are shown in beta code (without diacritics), as follows:
Greek letter
alpha
beta
gamma
delta
epsilon
zeta
eta
theta
iota
kappa
lambda
mu
nu
xi
omicron
pi
rho
Classics
Beta code
a
b
g
d
e
z
h
q
i
k
l
m
n
c
o
p
r
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sigma
tau
upsilon
phi
chi
psi
omega
s
t
u
f
x
y
w
A few oaths have a linguistic marker that is not a word or letter-string (e.g. use of the optative
mood to curse oneself; the common negative ou followed by an accusative case, meaning “no,
by …”,) and a few more are labelled as having “no linguistic marker”.
God: the god, goddess, hero, etc., by whom the swearer swears. Where an oath is taken by
two or more gods, it will be listed if you search on any one of them. This menu also includes
other sacred or precious (or, in comedy and similar genres, mock-sacred) objects on which
oaths were taken (so-called Eideshorte), ranging from Achilles’ sceptre in the Iliad to cabbages
and poppy leaves.
Sanctifying circumstances: choose “Present” to search for oaths that were made more
solemn by being taken in a particular place (usually a sanctuary) or in other special
circumstances (e.g. in the presence of an image of the relevant god, or with the swearer
touching a sacrificial victim or other sacred object). In each entry details will be given of what
sanctifying circumstances there were for that particular oath.
Fictional/non-fictional: fictional oaths are those which are not presented as having been
sworn or prescribed on an actual historical occasion, e.g. oaths in myth-based texts such as
epics or tragedies.
Oath taken: “no” here indicates either (i) that the oath was proposed but that the swearer
(or one or more of the swearers) refused to take it, or (ii) in oratorical texts, that the oath is a
merely hypothetical one, usually one rhetorically put into the mouth of the speaker’s opponent
or of an imaginary objector, or (iii) that the reference is to an oath falsely alleged to have
been sworn (see e.g. oath ID 3580).
Fulfilled: “yes” means that the oath statement was true, or the promise fulfilled; “no”
means that the statement was false or the promise broken; “more complex” means that the
outcome cannot be unequivocally described in either of these two ways. Where “more
complex” is shown, details will normally be given in the Remarks (see below), or in another
entry referred to in the Remarks.
Additional Information
In addition to the above, each database entry includes the following further information:
The heading gives the oath ID, author, work, precise reference, whether the source is
literary or epigraphic, its genre, and the date of the source (the date of the oath is given in the
“Date” field immediately below).
Location: where this is known, the place within a state’s territory where the oath was sworn.
Proposed by: if the taking of the oath was prescribed by a decree, law, etc., the name of the
proposer of this measure, where known, is given here. This field is also used where a person
(i) demands that another swear, or challenges him to do so, or (ii) offers to swear an oath to
another on condition that the oath is accepted as a sufficient guarantee of the honesty of the
statement or promise being made.
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If taken: except where an oath was volunteered on the swearer’s own initiative, this field
gives the consequence prescribed if the swearer agrees to take the oath, e.g. in the case of a
peace treaty “Peace treaty formalised”.
If refused: this field, contrariwise, gives the consequence prescribed if the swearer (or any
of the swearers) refuses to take the oath, e.g. in the case of a peace treaty “Hostilities will
continue”.
If kept: the divine reward (if any) for which the swearer prays in the event of his/her
assertory oath being true, or promissory oath being kept (e.g. “many blessings”).
If broken: the divine punishment (if specified) for which the swearer prays in the event of
his/her assertory oath being false, or promissory oath being broken (e.g. “utter destruction for
himself and his house”).
Impact: the effect of the oath on the behaviour or attitudes of others.
Consequences of breach: if the oath was (disputably or indisputably) false or broken, this
field records any untoward consequences for the swearer(s) which our sources regard as
punishment for their perjury.
Statement: the assertions or promises to which the swearer(s) was/were swearing. These
may be presented in Greek as well as English if a Greek text is extant that sets them out
explicitly. (If you are using Internet Explorer and find that Greek font is not
displaying properly, we suggest you consult the database using the Mozilla Firefox browser,
downloadable free from www.mozilla.com. The problem should not arise in Internet Explorer
7 or higher.)
Remarks: any further relevant information.
Two typical entries
(1)
Oath ID 318: Homer, Iliad, 3.245-301, (literary, Epic., 730-670)
Date:
mythical time
Reference
type:
Oath
State:
Troy
Swearer:
Greek army (male, any adult age, free, various Greek)
Location:
On the battle plain
Trojan army (male, any adult age, free, Trojan)
Swearee:
Greek army (male, any adult age, free, various Greek)
Trojan army (male, any adult age, free, Trojan)
Proposed
by:
If taken:
If refused:
If kept:
If broken:
Classics
Hector
War will be determined by single combat between Paris and Menelaus
War will continue
unknown
Let their brains be spilled on the ground and those of their sons, and let their
wives be the spoils of others
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Taken:
yes
Impact:
peace
Consequences of
breach:
True:
more complex
war resumes
Sanctifying
Sheep sacrificed, wine poured, hands washed with water, fruit brought
features
Statement: [That the Greeks and the Trojans will stop fighting, and that Menelaus and Paris
will engage in single combat over Helen and her possessions]
[Full Greek text cited – not reproduced here]
Lingustic
Marker(s):
martu, omos, ork
God(s)
invoked:
Zeus
Epithet(s)
Helios
Epithet(s) all-seeing, all-hearing
father, most honoured,
greatest
Rivers
Gaia
Nether Avengers against dead
perjurers
All the immortal gods
Remarks:
Classics
It is Agamemnon who makes the prayer which seals the oath, but the Achaeans
and the Trojans who state the punishments for breaking the oath. The oath is
mentioned several times in the Iliad- see oath ids 316, 317, 320, 322-326, 341,
343. Aristotle discusses this oath and issues of perjury- see oath ids 1999,
2000, 2002.
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(2) Oath ID 3495: Demosthenes, Against Timocrates, 175, (literary, Orat., 353)
Date:
353
Reference
type:
Oath
State:
Athens
Swearer:
Dikastai (male, mature/old, free, Athenian)
Swearee:
Presiding magistrate (male, mature/old, power-holder, Athenian)
Proposed
by:
Presiding magistrate
If
If
If
If
They can be jurors
They cannot be jurors
Many blessings (?)
Destruction of self and household (?)
taken:
refused:
kept:
broken:
Taken:
yes
Impact:
see remarks
Consequences of breach:
Location:
True:
Hill of Ardettus (?)
unknown
unknown
Sanctifying
unknown
features
Statement: [That they will vote according to the laws and decrees of the Athenian people
and the Council of Five Hundred; <and concerning matters about which there
are no laws, they will judge according to their perfectly honest opinion, and not
from favour nor from enmity>. Nor will they accept gifts for judging, nor will
any other man or woman do so on their behalf with their knowledge. And they
will give an equal hearing to the accuser and the defendant alike, and cast their
vote in relation to the actual matter in issue.]
Lingustic
Marker(s):
omwm, ork
God(s)
invoked:
Zeus
Poseidon
Demeter
Remarks:
Classics
Diodorus tells the jurors that they must not allow anyone to think that they
have disregarded the oaths they have sworn and gratified an unjust passion.
For the details of the Heliastic oath see oath id 3494.
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